Fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase (FALDH, ALDH3A2) is thought to be involved in the degradation of phytanic acid, a saturated branched-chain fatty acid derived from chlorophyll. However, the identity, subcellular distribution and physiological roles of FALDH are unclear because several variants produced by alternative splicing present in varying amounts at different subcellular locations. Subcellular fractionation experiments do not provide a clear-cut conclusion because of the incomplete separation of organelles. We established human cell lines heterologously expressing mouse FALDH from each cDNA without tagging under the control of an inducible promoter and detected the variant FALDH proteins using a mouse FALDH-specific antibody. One variant, FALDH-V, was exclusively detected in peroxisomal membranes. Human FALDH-V with a N-terminal myc sequence also localizes to peroxisomes. The most dominant form, FALDH-N, and other variants examined, however, were distributed in the endoplasmic reticulum. A GC-MS-based analysis of metabolites in FALDH-expressing cells incubated with phytol or phytanic acid showed that FALDH-V not FALDH-N is the key aldehyde dehydrogenase in the degradation pathway and protects peroxisomes from oxidative stress. In contrast, both FALDHs had a protective effect against oxidative stress induced by a model aldehyde for lipid peroxidation, dodecanal. These results suggest that FALDH variants are produced by alternative splicing and share an important role in protecting against oxidative stress in an organelle-specific manner.